There are profound connections between stars,
atoms and life that place human culture in the grand outline of the
development of the universe. This perspective has been called
the 'cosmic adventure'.
The adventure began in a hot and undifferentiated
broth of radiation. Eventually, on our tiny planet in a remote
corner of a small galaxy, there developed the incredible complexity
of life, human consciousness and culture. We now appreciate
that the universe, at least over the long haul, has moved toward
increasingly more intense forms of ordered novelty. In
this respect, we can say that it does have at least a net
directionality to it, particularly here on Earth, where there is
significantly more ordered novelty than there was three minutes
after the Big Bang. We have arrived throughout the fifteen billion
years of cosmic development as part of a process that has kept a
balance between pairs of primeval qualities. These qualities
are:
- harmony
and contrast;
- order
and unpredictability;
- unity
and complexity;
- pattern
and nuance;
-
homogeneity and diversity;
-
stability and novelty.
The existence of the universe and everything in
it depends on the internal ordering of its components. As far
as we can see, it was six numbers imprinted in the 'Big Bang' that
have maintained the trajectory of cosmic ecology as a balance of
qualities. Two of the numbers relate to the basic forces; two fix
the size and the overall texture of the universe and determine
whether it will continue for ever, and two more fix the properties
of space itself. If any one of these numbers was slightly
different at the start there would be no stars and no life.
The qualities have existed before human evolution
and in this sense they define the non-human purpose of the cosmos
as a physico-chemical process. Therefore, in thinking about
cosmic purpose we must separate ourselves from the modern
bias that nature is a value-neutral canvas that remains blank until
we have painted it with our cultural and political
inventions. The core of human distinctiveness is that we are
capable of thinking about the internal ordering of the universe and
our planetary systems so as to understand how these qualities are
expressed.
This attitude has an important bearing on the way
we view our heritage in its cosmic, ecological and social
dimensions. There are currently two views about the direction of
cosmic development and our place in it. After the universe
was energised from the void, the ordering of novelty followed the
sequence of energy, particles, stars, planets, materials and life
forms. Process theology takes the view that the direction was
governed by a programme of development according to divine
will. Process humanism takes the view that our universe is
just one of an infinity of universes bubbling up at random from the
void. Most would be untuned to allow the evolution of life.
Our universe is a rarity with the right combination of the key
numbers to ensure that it survives and developed as an intricately
structured cosmos. Terrestrial evolution is the story of one such
outcome, as are the political and technological endeavours of
nations of the earth.
Process theology says that the
self-creativity of all constituents of the cosmos willed by God
deserve our care because they are especially intense actualisations
of divinely inspired creativity and cosmic beauty. When
nature suffers, God suffers.
Process humanism says that to gain an
appropriate sense of our human worth we need to become aware of our
creative potential to work towards global order. Therefore,
intervention to maintain a balance of qualities that define our
biological and social heritage, by ordering novelty and unifying
complexity, is a small part of the grand cosmic
purpose.
Both points of view provide us with a knowledge
framework for thinking about cultural ecology that is deeply rooted
in cosmology. Also, they recapture the ancient spiritual sense that
we live in a meaningful and intrinsically valuable world and do so
in a manner entirely consonant with contemporary science.
Humanity's origins and practical capabilities require it to
participate in sustaining the cosmic process as a balance of
qualities that define our place in nature as much as our attitudes
to the uses of nature that are expressed in technology, art,
architecture and literature. In particular, this vision
involves recognising that conservation of biodiversity is not just
for humans or valueless apart from them.